Around 6.1 million EU families with children were headed by a single adult in 2025, accounting for 12.9% of all households with children.
The share of one-adult households with children varied widely across the bloc, ranging from 40.6% in Estonia to 3.1% in Slovakia, Eurostat reported on Monday.
Estonia had the highest proportion, with roughly four in 10 households with children relying on one adult, while Lithuania (32.7%) and Latvia (28.5%) recorded the next highest shares.
At the other end of the scale, Greece recorded 3.8% and Slovenia 4.0%.
Most one-adult households had one child
Across the EU, most one-adult households with children had one child (60.1%), while 30.9% had two children and 9.0% had three or more children, Eurostat said.
Women headed 5.0 million one-adult households with children — 81.6% of the total — while men headed the remaining 18.4%.
The statistics were published to coincide with the Global Day of Parents on 1 June.
